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Finally got the home inspection done. The house we’re interested in is a 1950s construction colonial house. It’s got fairly nice amenities and it’s well laid out but there’s a few WTFs which run the gamut of “we can deal with it” to “flat out nigger rigging”.

The two biggies which really pissed me off: The house had undeclared asbestos in the basement (they can cap it off or remove it) and the house has mold – marginally in the basement and very much so in the garage where the guy has DIY insulation for his workshop. The mold doesn’t piss me off badly, I’m not terribly allergic to it. The asbestos is from the water getting into the basement and lifting the tiles. Some of the tiles are broken and tada, suddenly you have an asbestos flag on your house. The legalese is you have to disclose both asbestos and mold and you can’t do anything with the house until it’s taken care of. Which includes selling it to me. With a baby on the way, I’m not interested in dealing with it.

Other stuff which will need work:

The deck isn’t level. This is a home depot run to lay more dirt and put in giant pieces of wood.

The wooden portion of the deck needs to be sealed.

The guy doesn’t understand what a lag bolt is for toilets.

The basement wiring is an adventure in flying splices and cut up lamp cord.

One of the pylons for the deck is simply missing. The wood beam is there, but the pylon under it? Gone.

Other than the environmental hazards it’s a nice place for the price and I can do the fix-it-shit.

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Well we’re trying to beat the housing market crash. Right now California is in the middle of it with homes which sold for $400k now on the market for $70k.

My take on it is two fold – There’s no point in buying a house at current prices because that bubble is just going to get here within six months, but now’s the time to put in offers and give them $10k profit or so before the feeding frenzy. Anyone watching the market here knows it’s coming, and I feel like if there’s some good pickings now, there’s no point in trying to get something during the next bubble later. The next bubble is going to be made of people who are buying rock bottom homes (foreclosures, etc) and then trying to resell them.

The trick, of course, is finding someone who agrees with you that their asking price is ungodly. Unlike cars, there’s a good amount of people I’ve realized throw a coat of paint on a house and say “Well the house down the street sold for…” and expect the same amount. Nevermind that the house down the street had a totally new interior, new appliances, and was immaculately kept. There’s a surprising amount of people with houses they haven’t kept up for jack and they expect the asking price of the guy down the street who is also throwing in a flat screen plasma.